Lane Kiffin posts emotional tribute to late father Monte after seeing rainbow
Throughout the week in Dallas, SEC coaches offered condolences to Lane Kiffin after the death of his father, Monte. The longtime coach passed away last week at the age of 84, just days before his son was set to take the podium at Media Days.
Lane Kiffin met with reporters on Monday at the Omni Dallas Hotel. Wednesday evening, he posted a tribute after seeing something that reminded him of his father.
Kiffin saw a rainbow and saw it as Monte saying hello. He saved most of his remarks about his dad’s life for Saturday’s celebration of life in Tampa – where Monte helped build the Buccaneers into a Super Bowl champion with his Tampa 2 defense – but thanked his peers for their kind words.
Monte and Lane Kiffin worked together toward the tail end of the former’s coaching career. After a decorated tenure with the Bucs, Monte returned to the college level under Lane at Tennessee as defensive coordinator in 2009. He then followed his son to USC as assistant head coach from 2010-12 before returning to the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys as their defensive coordinator in 2013 and as assistant head coach for defense in 2014.
Following a year away, he then served as a defensive assistant with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2016 and at Florida Atlantic under Lane from 2017-19. Then, when Lane headed to Ole Miss, Monte joined him as a defensive analyst.
Lane Kiffin: Dad, Monte, was his ‘superhero’
During his opening statement at the podium, Kiffin mentioned a conversation he had with a longtime friend. That helped inspire him to remember his father as not just his hero, but his “superhero.”
“I’ve talked before about being my hero,” Kiffin said. “I had a high school, neighborhood friend – really, middle school friend – he said hero’s not really the right term for him. It’s superhero. That’s what he was to the people that he touched. He used this term, and now I’m using this term, in description of him because I really feel like there’s very few superheroes, there are few brave ones, that loved everyone and tried to help everyone they came in touch with forever. Whether you were big or small, wherever you were, he tried to help.”
One of the stories Kiffin heard about his dad was from someone who met him in passing. They didn’t know each other, but the person said Monte treated him like they knew each other for years. That, Lane said, spoke to the type of person his dad was.
“One person said, which I think is telling for those who don’t know him and I thought this was very descriptive,” Kiffin said. “He said, I met him in a gas station, and although he was a stranger to me, he made me feel like a friend. And that was him. He’d never want anybody to have a bad day or be sad, so this is me trying to do that.”